


The Dawn of a Black Day

by PoisonEvie



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Voldemort Wins, Background Bluna, Character Death, Dark Harry Potter, Escaped because of a Portkey, F/M, Good Death Eaters, Post-Sirius Black in Azkaban, Time Turner (Harry Potter), safe house, trigger warning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-10
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-14 20:13:58
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29301714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PoisonEvie/pseuds/PoisonEvie
Summary: Terror had doomed on the Order at the sight of Harry Potter in Death Eater robes.There had been three choices that day: repent, die or get tagged. Repenting meant falling to your knees and being Crucio´ed until you fainted, and then imprisoned with Manacles that shackled your Magic and prevented you from using it extensively. Being tagged meant two manacles stating who you belonged to, a choker around your neck and a sneer from Voldemort.Dawn had gotten tagged.--“You-you need to take Harry” Sirius said, nodding, and not letting go of the baby “You need to t-take him, n-now...” Sirius looked around as Hagrid started to complain. “Here, take my bike!” He said, walking over with Harry still in his arms.“What? Sirius! Tell me what´s ´appening!”“There’s no time to explain, Hagrid, I need you to take Harry somewhere safe as soon as possible!” Sirius yelled over the rain, handing Harry over to the man whilst he played with the toy around his neck. He needed to find Peter, now.Harry cried out in Hagrid´s arms, hanging on to... Was that the Time-turner?Oh, shit.“No Harry-” He yelled before disappearing out of thin air, travelling over time.
Relationships: Sirius Black/Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 5





	1. Chapter one: September the 7th, 2001.

**Author's Note:**

> CW: Major Character Death, Torture, Scars (no SH), unvoluntary starving, War, Mentions of Trauma, PTSD, Anxiety, possible Depression, Sexual Assault/Sexual favours.
> 
> This is an AU of an AU of Harry Potter that I´m currently working on. The original fanfic is called Start the Loop, and the events follow Canon until they diverge in Malfoy Manor. And of course, before that, things were a bit darker than in the films and books.
> 
> Bill and Fleur´s wedding was originally in august 1997, in this timeline it was in 1998. The Malfoy manor was in April 1998, its now in 1999. The Battle of Hogwarts was in May in 1998, in this timeline it happens in April 2001.

The day of the Battle of Hogwarts, Ron had been the first of the Order to die. Dawn remembered, of course. How could she not, when Ron had been hit with a Severing Charm on his neck, of all places? The sounds that had come out of Molly that day, she was sure she´d never forget. Not unlike the spluttering sounds he made before dying, falling to the floor beside her as the air left her lungs and a pain rippled through her chest. She´d gripped her wand so tight she thought she´d break it. She had gripped it like that the whole battle, even after Molly´s screams were silenced.

Next was Seamus Finnegan, along with Moody, Lupin, Kingsley, Arthur, Fred, and George. The Members that weren’t already missing died in that Battle, or worse: were imprisoned and enslaved, tagged. 

Terror had doomed on the Order at the sight of Harry Potter in Death Eater robes. And the fact that his wand had been the one to cast so many Crucio´s, so many hexes and curses toward no other than the Weasleys. 

He´d tortured Minerva. Her heart clenched at the thought because Minerva had cried from emotional pain more than anything. She had sobbed so hard Dawn didn’t think she´d have tears by the time she stopped. Dawn wasn´t sure she´d ever get to stop, not if he killed her first. The Hogwarts teacher had screamed at the horror of seeing her most beloved student, the son of James Potter, turn into a monster. 

The order had scrambled after that. The ones that had survived, Dawn had lost contact with. Apart from her, she wasn´t sure anyone had made it out, and if they had, she was sure they´d die in a period of four months. 

They had either escaped, been imprisoned, or tagged and were now wandering the streets, doing favors for scraps of food. That was the conclusion Dawn had arrived on after circling the topic for almost a week. She fought hard not to think too hard on it. She wasn´t sure what was worse: Having been killed, or thrown into the dungeons in Hogwarts, which now held ´Criminals´ and ´Mudbloods´ that didn’t behave.

Dawn was currently staying in the tent she´d nicked from Ron right before using the emergency Portkey Remus had gifted to her right before the Battle, muttering something about a loop and Sirius. It was a small key, one she hung on her neck with a loose string and a chain, and she gripped tight when the Battle had ended. 

There had been three choices that day: repent, die or get tagged. Repenting meant falling to your knees and being Crucio´ed until you fainted, and then imprisoned with Manacles that shackled your Magic and prevented you from using it extensively. Being tagged meant two manacles stating who you belonged to, a choker around your neck and a sneer from Voldemort.

Dawn had gotten tagged.

Uniforms were put in place and were required at all times. Muggleborn women were forced to wear a short, muddy-red dress that adhered to the curves of their body and had a dangerously low V-neck. The dresses were made to fit the wearer, and to not fall of unless tugged on. If they hadn´t yet been imprisoned, then they were out in the streets looking for night jobs. 

Half-bloods were thrown blue robes; short dresses similar to Muggleborn´s except for the colour. Lastly, Purebloods wore black. Pureblood women were permitted any dress as long as it was short, revealing, and black. Most purebloods either stayed at their Manors or walked the streets in a flock unlike Muggleborns and Half-bloods.

Along with the dresses, each woman wore a removable metal choker around their necks: Gold for pure-blood, silver for Muggle-Born, and bronze for Half-blood. The manacles around everyone´s wrists permitted them to walk around freely but not use extensive magic, or harm themselves. They each had a name on them that stated your property. Of course, Dawn had gotten Dolohov.

A new normality had fallen over the wizarding world, one filled with poverty and death.

Potter Watch had added lists of the imprisoned to the ones of missing and deceased after that. They had chosen not to change the name of the channel. Not like Dawn gave a shit, anyway, but it did feel grim when it seemed they were kicking a dead horse. If Harry was turned, if he was Voldemort´s right hand, why keep naming things after the bastard?

Dawn had stood stoically almost every night, eating canned peas with her hands for lack of a better tool, and sipping water between each bite to make herself feel full as the lists went on, and the names were read. 

_“And now, the list of imprisoned, missing, and deceased witches and wizards of the past six months. As always, Potter Watch is sorry for your loss.”_ Was what the hushed voice would parrot every time it was on. For safety reasons, the lists now were read the seventh of every month. Dawn listened in to every single one, hoping never to hear the names of... She didn’t know who, anymore. Not really. They usually went from less recent to newer ones, so she´d always hear the few names that meant something to her first. She braced for what was coming.

_“Now, for the imprisoned,”_ Spoke the man, and Dawn leaned into the radio. She couldn’t help it, even when she´d heard the first few names over five times each, she always leaned in. Maybe a part of her hoped a name would disappear. The voice crackled _“Ginny Weasley, Dean Thomas, Evelyn Meadowes, Fleur Delacour, Nymphadora Tonks, Hermione Granger...”_ Dawn stopped listening after that. Her blood ran cold, because who knew what they were doing to them? She´d already heard those names, that list, a month after the Battle, the first time Potter Watch was able to be tuned into in a month. It had read the names of those dead in combat, but the feeling was still there. Ginny, Dean, Evelyn, Fleur, Hermione, those were her friends. Some Order Members had been imprisoned, as well. Dawn wandered who was taking care of Teddy and had done so for the past six months now that Remus was dead and Tonks in a cell.

Dawn distracted herself by checking in on her Pepper-up and Dreamless sleep potions. She had scarcely what was necessary to brew them, but she was starting to feel like she needed them. She made weekly batches as big as she could manage to, fractioned them so they´d last, and always foraged for ingredients every ten days in the forest. 

The four most important potions she always liked to have in her bag were Blood-replenishing, Essence of Dittany, Pepper-up, and Dreamless Sleep. The latter were for her night terrors, and because she usually got splinched. She was not the best at Apparating despite her efforts and trial and error. Unfortunately, the ingredients were getting harder to find, and Dawn was growing paranoid of the forest. She didn’t think she would be able to brew any more batches, at least for a while. After this one, she´d run out. 

Blood Replenishing and Essence of Dittany were always handy when dealing with the gashes that dripped blood every time she Apparated without thinking were to go. She had more scars than she could count, and had evaded mirrors when foraging for food and clothes in the houses.

Dawn knew how she would look. Her cheeks were probably hollowing, and she looked worn. Her eyes empty, even her hair had lost its shine, and had started to fall. Dawn had sobbed at the sight the first time she´d realized what was happening. Her hands looked almost skeletal, and there was a constant ache in her stomach, an ache that begged for solid food. Tasty, warm food, which she hadn’t had in... Gods, how much had it been?

Dawn was dying, and she couldn’t muster the strength to stop it from happening.

The most she took from the houses she´d raided in the topic of beauty or makeup was a hairbrush, because the knots in her head were driving her insane, along with a couple of hair bands. She had stopped using the hairbrush after a week and noticing how it not only brushed away the knots, but the hair itself. Dawn was sure she´d be dried up by the time the War ended. If the War ended.

Her attention was once again drawn to the radio when the list of missing people started. _“...Sirius Black, Luna Lovegood, Andromeda Black, Bill Weasley, Millicent Bulstrode, Penelope Clearwater, Michael Corner, Dawn Creswell...”_

The first time they´d read her name, Dawn had choked on her food. But after drinking away the water she´d gathered over the week of heavy rain, she had smiled at the realization: If she was on the list, then missing most likely meant on the run. It meant they weren’t on the streets, selling themselves. It meant they were hiding. 

The tent felt empty, and it was. Dawn had sufficiently managed to not get caught for upwards of a six-month period. She was not so sure what day it was, but she had last walked around the streets near her tent a week ago. She was wearing the expected uniform, the golden choker and red dress, and the stupid manacles that read _´Property of Dolohov´_.

She practiced a wandless Warming Charm on some water she´d managed to gather a few weeks ago. It was not extensive, and the manacles permitted the small slip of magic.

She´d had to grab plastic bottles out of Muggle bins, cast a wandless and successful Scorgioufy on them -which had taken a few tries-, and had then shrinked them to later fill them with cold water, throwing them into her bag. The winter was cold and dry, so there was no hope of rain any day soon. Of course, she could cast a Warming Charm on the snow, but who knew who or what had stepped on it. Not like Dawn really cared, she´d stepped over that line years ago. 

The only reason she drank from bottles was the small sense of normality they gave her, like she was just a normal girl, living in a tent, drinking bottled water. Maybe she was camping... By herself. 

Dawn´s wand no longer served her. Still, she kept it beside her bed at all times, and on her when she went out. It gave her a sense of safety, even when if she was attacked she´d most likely not be able to protect herself in any way.

She had a mattress that lay on the floor, with several blankets she´d nicked from the houses she went into for supplies. It was not an easy trip, and so far she´d only made two, but Dawn had waited to enter the second house too long, out of fear, and so what was left was scarce. 

Last week, though, Dawn had charmed her hair to be plain brown, disillusioned her manacles, taken the choker off, and had swiftly walked into a small muggle town near the forest she was staying in and had caught a glimpse of a newspaper a man was holding that read: _“Family of three murdered in their own home!”_ , and Dawn had politely asked to read the paper over once to the man, who had agreed after looking her over and accepting the coins she slipped him. She´d taken a mental note of the direction, the time of the murders, and had left the bar quickly, walking all the way back to the forest and grabbing her bag.

She had made guard outside the house, with a Disillusionment Charm on her, and had waited for nearly three hours while Police searched the house.

After the Muggle police left, Dawn had snuck in and grabbed anything in sight. This house had been a big one, a whole family of Muggles with a witch for a daughter. They had thankfully taken the bodies, and Dawn walked silently through the house hoping no by-stander would see. 

She entered the upper rooms and found two pairs of jeans, three simple shirts, and two coats inside one of the wardrobes. Dawn felt a glimmer of hope at the sight since winter was rapidly falling on Britain and she was growing colder and weaker by the month. 

Something had told her to grab a stupidly vintage leather jacket that had made her snicker, and she’d thrown it into the bag without so much a hesitation as she thought she would have. She had also nicked a big brown and cozy hoodie and wore it to bed every night after that. 

She found what could be made into three pairs of -mismatched- socks on the other room, presumably the child´s, along with one pair of brown and old boots Dawn had grimaced at the smell of, half-fingered gloves that didn’t serve a better purpose than fashion, a pair of bras and a bar of simple and white soap. 

Dawn was sure she´d need to shrink everything to fit her but was happy, nonetheless, with what she´d managed to gather. Her bra -her only bra- had been falling apart at the seams for months now, whilst her shoes were battered and almost completely broken. She had barely any jackets left, and her shirts were ragged and dirty with dried blood, mud, tears and sweat. 

Of course, out on the streets Dawn was not allowed to wear any of that, but she was content, nonetheless.

She´d nicked the pasta on the fridge, the cans of food, the bottles of alcohol and had washed her face before leaving with a grin on her face. 

Now, back in the tent, she practiced Warming and Cooling Charms wandlessly and mindlessly as the soothing voice of the Potter Watch program calmed her nerves. She couldn’t bear her own thoughts.

As the background noise -which was the list of deaths that had only grown over the months and Dawn no longer listened to- filled the tent, a whoosh of air coming from outside the tent distracted her. 

Dawn stood from the floor and went to close the tent as what looked like a storm gathered. The wind howled, and the trees moved with it as the leaves picked up pace. Dawn slipped one of her hairs behind her ear when a crackling sound, not quite like the sound of Apparition but close, was heard. A ball of golden light started to form as Dawn gripped her wand from her jeans. 

Time rippled, and a man came stumbling out of the ball into the snow before Dawn.


	2. October, 31st, 1981. Godric´s Hollow.

**Chapter two: Godric´s Hollow, October 31st, 1981**  
Sirius Black was aware he´d been assigned this mission purely because the Order was out of options. Remus was with the Pack of Werewolves in an undercover mission once again, Peter was out with Mary in another mission Sirius had no idea of. James and Lily were in hiding and the rest of the Order was recovering from an attack they´d received two weeks ago in Diagon Alley. The attack had been completely out of nowhere. It was like they knew where and when they were going to be.

The order had a rat, and Sirius knew it. That was why he´d proposed Peter to be Secret Keeper, instead of him. He was... Doubting Remus, to say the least. He´d been acting weird all month, and with all the spy thing...

Sirius carried the small and precious box inside his jacket, the rain falling hard. He looked over his shoulder, finding a small woman wearing blue robes. He pivoted into an alley, taking various unnecessary turns as a means of making sure the woman as simply going the same way as him. Thankfully, she was, and when Sirius turned back after several blocks, she was nowhere in sight.

It was a rather horrible night. But not for the reasons Sirius was about to realize, no. It was simply a day full of rain and thunder, and Sirius hated the rain. His hair was completely soaked, as was his coat, and he quickly walked over to his bike. 

The trip home felt longer than usual, and a feeling rumbled in Sirius’s tummy. Probably hunger.

Godric´s Hollow was as beautiful as ever. But, as Sirius approached it, a strong feeling of unease washed over him. 

The door to James and Lily´s house was wide open. The only sound that could be heard in the whole block was the one of a baby crying.

Sirius gripped his wand inside his jacket and took it out. He slowly walked over to the house, the sense of terror filling his chest. Sirius made himself concentrate. He couldn’t distract himself now. He cast Lumos, and the top of his wand lit up the space.

The house itself looked like a battlefield. The windows were blown, the dinner table had toppled over. The door Sirius had seen be open was hanging on the side, like it had been blown over. The feeling of Dark magic lingered in the air, and the colour of defensive hexes against the wall told Sirius this didn’t _seem_ like a battlefield, it was.

Sirius raised his wand and cast a Patronus. The form of the Grim stood in front of him, and he spoke his message, “The Potters have been attacked, send help now”.

He hoped Dumbledore would help. Sirius hoped for so many things, then. But none were made true.

Sirius slowly started to walk up the stairs. Harry´s crying was all he could think about as he took the last step and stood in the hallway. Sirius felt all his blood run cold. He gripped his wand tighter and swallowed, his heart pounding. 

The first thing he saw were his eyes. Cold and empty, lifeless. Dead. The sound muffled around him. All he could see was him, and his body. James. His friend, his very best friend. The son of the man and woman who´d took him in when he´d been cast out of his own family. The first person who ever accepted him. Dead. Never coming back. He would not see him again. Sirius balanced on the wall to his right, feeling dizzy. After all, it truly was a horrible night.

_Harry._

His cries took him back out of his own mind, and Sirius pushed his grief and horror down. Harry, he thought, I must protect Harry. So, he kept walking, making sure not to look down again, not to look back. Stepping over the debris, Sirius avoided the sharp glass on the floor and let the growing adrenaline pumping through his veins lead him. The door to Harry´s bedroom was wide open, a dim yellow-y light lighting the hallway poorly.

Sirius braced for what was coming, then. He breathed in deep. Later, later he would mourn. Lily had to be alive. 

_Please, please. Please be alive._

_But she wasn’t._

Lily Evan´s dead body lay on the floor besides Harry´s crib, and Sirius lost it. “No! No! Lily! No, Please, no!” His chest heaved, and he fell to his knees. _No. This can’t be_ , he thought. He cradled Lily´s body, sobbing and stroking her hair. _Please no. Prongs, Lily please tell me this is a joke. Please let it be a joke._ He breathed in air and felt like he was going to die. _Harry_ , he thought. _I must save Harry._

The baby was unbearably calmer, his cries having died down. There were tears running down his face, but Harry was staring at Sirius. He slowly let go of Lily´s body, the parting feeling like a new tear in his heart. 

Sirius stood, his knees wobbling, and slowly went over to Harry. He took him in his arms, and the baby put his tiny arms around Sirius´s neck as he balanced him on his hip. 

Sirius let out quiet tears, feeling like Harry was the one protecting him, and not the other way around. He grabbed Harry´s favorite charmed, anti-water blanky and covered him with it, to protect him from the heavy rain that pounded down on Godric´s Hollow.

As he tried to walk back over the debris without looking down or tripping over, Harry dug something from inside his jacket and squealed like he´d found his new favorite toy. Sirius tried to ignore it, sniffing, and hiccupping every few seconds, but the baby raised the object over Sirius´s head and started studying it closely, babbling and giggling to himself.

“Da-da?” He asked, turning his small body, and pointing behind Sirius, possibly towards James’s body. Sirius winced and grabbed Harry´s small face, “Dada is not here, Harry. I´m here. I´ll protect you, I promise” He said.

How had this happened? Sirius needed to find Peter, make sure he was fine. What if he was dead and that was why they´d found them?

Harry returned to the toy Sirius had around his neck while he walked down the stairs. Hagrid was there, and Sirius sobbed, running to him. “Hagrid!” his voice muffled as he talked into his coat, “Sirius? What ´appened? Why´s ´arry here? He´ll catch ´cold! ´Ere, Give ´im to me-”

“No!” He said, ripping Harry from Hagrid. “You-you need to take Harry” He said, nodding, now agreeing with him but still not letting go of the baby “You need to t-take him, n-now...” Sirius looked around as Hagrid started to complain. “Here, take my bike!” He said, walking over with Harry still in his arms. 

“What? Sirius! Tell me what´s ´appening!” 

“There’s no time to explain, Hagrid, I need you to take Harry somewhere safe as soon as possible!” Sirius yelled over the rain, handing Harry over to the man whilst he played with the toy around his neck. He needed to find Peter, now. Harry cried out in Hagrid´s arms, hanging on to... Was that the Time-turner?

Oh, _shit_. “No Harry-” He yelled before disappearing out of thin air, travelling over time.


End file.
